The present invention relates to electrical systems, and in particular to an electrical distribution system for use on a motor vehicle.
Electrical distribution systems for motor vehicles conventionally comprise a plurality of individual wires which interconnect an electrical power source comprising a battery and a generator, a panel of control switches, and each individual electrical current consuming device of the vehicle. The wires from the control switches to the electrical devices, such as front and rear lights, windscreen wiper, horn, ignition system etc., all follow different routes through the vehicle between the control switches and the electrical devices themselves. The number and complexity of these routes gives rise to considerable problems of construction and assembly.
Attempts to overcome these problems have been made by making electrical systems for motor vehicles using a single current-carrying conductor to feed the electrical devices under the control of a number of control wires in groups in the form of a microcable with a plurality of control wires, which follow a single route through the vehicle. Systems have also been made in which the current-carrying conductor is associated with a single control wire carrying coded signals so as to be able to control, as the coded signals change, the various different electrical devices of the vehicle.
All of these systems rely on the provision, for each electrical device, or group of devices which operate at the same time, of an actuator associated with the device or group of devices and operable to connect the power line with the associated electrical device or group of devices when the actuator is operated by a signal on the corresponding control wire. There arise, therefore, problems of positioning and fixing for these actuators, which must be connected both to the power line and to the control line.